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User blog:Ronaldo Smith/Cow Noise Again
I am writing my own version of Master Of Orion, which I call Cow Noise Again. I will give an overview today and add more information on an irregular basis. I am hoping that someone will find this and provide some feedback on my ideas. Nature of work I do not have any license or other rights to any of the original Master Of Orion material. The program is a private activity that is solely for my own use and I have no plans to try to distribute it currently. However I may be willing to privately provide copies to persons who are able to provide me with useful feedback on the game. Basic Concepts My preferred version of the game is MOO 1. While MOO 2 has several good points, I could not stand the overuse of space monsters. So my game is based on MOO 1, but is perhaps best described as what MOO 2 would have been if I had written it. Design Principles/Goals 1) Avoid micro management. Details of management are to be kept as simple and similar to MOO 1 as possible. 2) Increase strategic options. Add new subtleties and complexities to the strategic options available to the player, while adding as little as possible to the management overhead. 3) Increase the variety of situations. Have as many variables in the initial setup and game progress as possible, so that every new game will have new surprises in it. 4) Increase the verisimilitude. This is a low priority, and not really a lot can be done, but there are a few things that can make the game correspond a bit more to the real universe as we know it. Changes/Additions To achieve the above goals I am including the following changes/additions (not a comprehensive list): 1) Change of Scale. Master of Orion is actually based on an old board game called Stellar Conquest (which I own a copy of). In the board game each turn is 4 years and distances are in light years instead of parsecs. This means that a movement of 1 is one quarter the speed of light. The maximum speed allowed is 3, which is still slower than the speed of light. In Cow Noise Again I change the distance scale to light years and the time scale to 4 year turns. Really this does not directly affect the play of the game much at all because all activities and costs remain turn based, so it does not really matter what the turns are called. (Exception: see Light Speed) (Helps meet Design Goal 4) 2) Light Speed. At the start of the game each species has Beam Rider engines that have a speed of 1 (25% the speed of light). Improved Beam Rider engines can be developed to increase speed to 2 or 3. However, to reach or exceed the speed of light (4+ in game terms) new physics must be discovered and developed. When the game is being setup the program randomly chooses from 8 options what possible physics will allow light speed or faster travel. More than one may be possible. The player must conduct basic research to find which are actually possible, then he can develop engines/devices to use the new physics. (Helps meet Design Goals 2, 3 & 4) 3) Planetary Systems.''' '''While I completely sympathize with the adding of multiple planets around each star in MOO2, I do not think that was an effective solution to the concern of each star having more than 1 planet. Instead I take the view that each star display in the game, i.e. set of slider controls, represents the resources/occupants of the star's entire planetary system. Each planet is NOT represented individually. (Helps meet Design Goal 1) 4) Expanded Trade. (I have not completely decided on how to implement this component yet.) The effect that trade has, both internally in a society and with foreign societies, is given more depth so that specifics of treaties and coinciding or conflicting needs of different societies is directly represented. The purpose is so that conflicts do not happen in a mindlessly random manner as often, and instead have a real basis in the strategic situation. (Helps meet Design Goal 2, though may negatively impact Design Goal 1) 5) The Orion Mystery. At the start of the game the program will randomly select from 16 possibilities to determine what became of the ancient Orions. When a society colonizes an Artifact system, or the Orion system, and wishes to conduct research at that system, they must choose whether the research will be ordinary technological research (with the usual bonus), or Orion Mystery research. Orion Mystery research is an attempt to determine what it was that caused the Orions to disappear, so that the society doing the research can avoid the same fate. It might be the Antarans, it might be something completely different (for example a Robot Revolt). (Helps meet Design Goals 2 & 3) 6) 3D Map. (This is an option that can be turned on or off in the initial setup.) Space is three dimensional. If 3D Map is turned on then the game playing area is a three dimensional space. This is indicated in the view by the size of the star. The larger a star appears to be the closer to the viewer it is. Screen shot of initial setup in 3D: In this setup Sol is relatively small appearing, and is thus farther away from the viewer than are (for example) the two green stars. The two yellow stars are about the same distance from the viewer as Sol. The two red stars are smaller appearing than Sol, and are thus further away from the viewer. The same view with the range finding option turned on: The distance for the range finding has been set to 3, so as to show all stars within 3 light years. The two yellow stars and one of the red stars are 2 light years distant. The remaining red star is 3 light years distant. Note that the green blue and white stars are not within 3 light years, meaning that they are each (probably) more than 3 light years closer to the viewer than is Sol. In fact when the simple Distance finder is used the 'nearby' green star is 11 light years distant from Sol. (The 3D map helps meet Design Goals 2 & 4) Category:Blog posts